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I'd love to see a Detroit/St. Louis World Series. The mainstream sports media would probably get lost on the way to either city.
It is looking like you will get your wish. It will be a match up of the two teams with the worst records among the ten teams which qualified for post season play.
It is looking like you will get your wish. It will be a match up of the two teams with the worst records among the ten teams which qualified for post season play.
Which reinforces the point I make in that the baseball playoffs are bunk and need to be done away with. I love baseball, it is my favorite sport. I follow it religiously from spring training to the fall classic but I'm sorry the playoffs are ruining the sport. The St. Louis Cardinals are the poster boy for the fatal flaw in the playoff system. A team that is consistent in it's mediocrity continues to win in the postseason and it renders the 162 game, 5 month long regular season nearly meaningless and a joke. Why strive to win 95 games when you can coast to the playoffs winning 83, 90, and 88 games. (Those are the win totals for St. Louis in 2006, 2011, and this year.)
The 83 win year is beyond a joke. It's why I hate the divisional set up that all sports seem to have. No matter what every year one division is going to be a joke and some mediocre team is going to get rewarded for it's arbitrary dumb luck of playing in a terrible division while a team that plays in the AL East could have the 3rd best record in baseball and yet miss out on the postseason. That's why I want to get rid of the divisions and all 15 teams in each other 12 times for a total 168 games. 6 at home, 6 on the road. That's fair, everyone plays the same exact schedule as everyone else, no more cupcake divisions (I'm looking at you AL Central, and for many years the NL Central was also a joke) and no more insane 1 game play in games. I would like then for the top team in each league to go straight to the World Series so that way the best teams get rewarded for excelling throughout the year. But I would even compromise on the top 2 teams in each league playing a LCS to go to the World Series.
Right now the baseball playoffs reward mediocre teams like the Tigers and Cardinals because they are in "playoff mode" the final month of the season so they come into the postseason fighting whereas teams like the Nationals try to fix their rotation and rest starters the last week or two. Also the Tigers mediocrity got rewarded by playing in a cupcake division while the Cardinals mediocrity got rewarded by the idiocy of Bud Selig and the WC play in game. By every objective measure the Cardinals should have never even been allowed in the postseason, they finished 6 game behind Atlanta, lost the head to head series with Atlanta 5-1, they had the 5th best record in the NL and tied Detroit for the 10th best record in MLB. The MLB postseason system is fatally flawed and continually rewards mediocrity. The World Series should be a reward for months of good baseball and rewarding the best and most deserving teams, not rewarding 88 win mediocre teams that had the good fortune of a bad division or playing a coin flip game against a team that was better and more deserving than them.
These are exactly the same Yankees who won 95 games during the season, only once losing four in a row. The Terminators will be back. Do not expect the era of Roy White and Horace Clark and Fritz Peterson just yet.
Which reinforces the point I make in that the baseball playoffs are bunk and need to be done away with. I love baseball, it is my favorite sport. I follow it religiously from spring training to the fall classic but I'm sorry the playoffs are ruining the sport. The St. Louis Cardinals are the poster boy for the fatal flaw in the playoff system. A team that is consistent in it's mediocrity continues to win in the postseason and it renders the 162 game, 5 month long regular season nearly meaningless and a joke. Why strive to win 95 games when you can coast to the playoffs winning 83, 90, and 88 games. (Those are the win totals for St. Louis in 2006, 2011, and this year.)
The 83 win year is beyond a joke. It's why I hate the divisional set up that all sports seem to have. No matter what every year one division is going to be a joke and some mediocre team is going to get rewarded for it's arbitrary dumb luck of playing in a terrible division while a team that plays in the AL East could have the 3rd best record in baseball and yet miss out on the postseason. That's why I want to get rid of the divisions and all 15 teams in each other 12 times for a total 168 games. 6 at home, 6 on the road. That's fair, everyone plays the same exact schedule as everyone else, no more cupcake divisions (I'm looking at you AL Central, and for many years the NL Central was also a joke) and no more insane 1 game play in games. I would like then for the top team in each league to go straight to the World Series so that way the best teams get rewarded for excelling throughout the year. But I would even compromise on the top 2 teams in each league playing a LCS to go to the World Series.
Right now the baseball playoffs reward mediocre teams like the Tigers and Cardinals because they are in "playoff mode" the final month of the season so they come into the postseason fighting whereas teams like the Nationals try to fix their rotation and rest starters the last week or two. Also the Tigers mediocrity got rewarded by playing in a cupcake division while the Cardinals mediocrity got rewarded by the idiocy of Bud Selig and the WC play in game. By every objective measure the Cardinals should have never even been allowed in the postseason, they finished 6 game behind Atlanta, lost the head to head series with Atlanta 5-1, they had the 5th best record in the NL and tied Detroit for the 10th best record in MLB. The MLB postseason system is fatally flawed and continually rewards mediocrity. The World Series should be a reward for months of good baseball and rewarding the best and most deserving teams, not rewarding 88 win mediocre teams that had the good fortune of a bad division or playing a coin flip game against a team that was better and more deserving than them.
Unless you can show that the MLB is losing money because of the 'fatally flawed' playoff system, your argument is completely missing the point.
[broken record]Baseball is a sport. Major League Baseball is a business[/broken record]
You need to get over the idea that the World Series winner is in anyway the best team in baseball. The World Series winner is simply the Major League Baseball playoff winner. Think of it as two distinct seasons. The regular season and the playoffs. The regular season is as you know it. The division winners in the regular season, plus two wild card teams earn the right to participate in the playoffs. Once the playoffs start, everyone's record is 0-0 (except for deciding home field advantage).
Unless you can show that the MLB is losing money because of the 'fatally flawed' playoff system, your argument is completely missing the point.
[broken record]Baseball is a sport. Major League Baseball is a business[/broken record]
Well baseball is falling further behind football every year and basketball surpassed baseball year ago. This whole "WC play in" game was an attempt by Bud Selig to manufacture drama in order to drive ratings. The WC game is a gimmick, just like the ASG deciding home field advantage for the WS. Baseball needs to lose it's gimmicks. There would be plenty of drama to go around without rewarding mediocrity like the current system does. I mean look at year, plenty of people tuned in to see Baltimore and New York slug it out for the division but imagine if the winner didn't decide who won the division but who won the American League! In the NL the Reds and the Nats finished tied (record wise) for the best record in the NL so imagine the drama coming down the stretch to see which team was headed to the WS and which had a long off season.
That's plenty of drama. Also teams like the Yankees, Phillies, Red Sox, etc. (aka the
"big market" teams) tend to finish the year with 95+ wins and the best record. When the Yankees are in the WS more eyeballs tune in to watch it, same with any other big market team with a large fan base. So from a business perspective it makes sense to have the big market teams in the WS as often as possible. A side effect of my system would likely be the big teams in the WS more often. It also makes the regular season very important whereas it is currently almost completely meaningless. More people would tune into the 168 (under my system) regular season games because they would be so much more important.
Well baseball is falling further behind football every year and basketball surpassed baseball year ago.
In what?
MLB had its highest attendance since 2008 the season. I don't see this doom and gloom that people are so fond of invoking.
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This whole "WC play in" game was an attempt by Bud Selig to manufacture drama in order to drive ratings. The WC game is a gimmick,
How is it a 'gimmick'? Is it an attempt to draw fans and encourage them to spend money? Yes. But so is the entire post season. Is the World Series a 'gimmick'?
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just like the ASG deciding home field advantage for the WS. Baseball needs to lose it's gimmicks. There would be plenty of drama to go around without rewarding mediocrity like the current system does. I mean look at year, plenty of people tuned in to see Baltimore and New York slug it out for the division but imagine if the winner didn't decide who won the division but who won the American League!
Are you trying to tell me that the increase in the number of people who would have had interest in the Yankees and Baltimore playing for the AL pennant would have been greater than the decrease in the number of people in Chicago, Detroit, Oakland and Texas who would have lost interest since their teams weren't in the race? Color me skeptical.
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In the NL the Reds and the Nats finished tied (record wise) for the best record in the NL so imagine the drama coming down the stretch to see which team was headed to the WS and which had a long off season.
Ditto as to Braves, Cardinals, Giants and Dodgers fans.
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That's plenty of drama. Also teams like the Yankees, Phillies, Red Sox, etc. (aka the
"big market" teams) tend to finish the year with 95+ wins and the best record. When the Yankees are in the WS more eyeballs tune in to watch it, same with any other big market team with a large fan base. So from a business perspective it makes sense to have the big market teams in the WS as often as possible. A side effect of my system would likely be the big teams in the WS more often.
So now your argument is that baseball would be better served by having less teams in the hunt for a World Series victory? You believe that the increase in the number of Yankees fans would be greater than the decrease in the number of fans from all other teams? Again, skeptical.
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It also makes the regular season very important whereas it is currently almost completely meaningless.
66% of teams are eliminated from the playoffs under the current system. I don't find that meaningless.
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More people would tune into the 168 (under my system) regular season games because they would be so much more important.
Evidence to back up your assertion?
I disagree for the reasons mentioned above.
A few years ago the big complaining was that it's always the same teams making the playoffs.
Now it's that too many teams are making the playoffs.
The World Series should be a reward for months of good baseball and rewarding the best and most deserving teams, not rewarding 88 win mediocre teams that had the good fortune of a bad division or playing a coin flip game against a team that was better and more deserving than them.
I guess the "best and most deserving teams" should find a way to avoid losing when it's most important.
I think it's funny that everybody is a critic/whiner until his team is the one benefitting. My team did not get home field advantage in the 2004 World Series despite the fact that it easily had the best record in baseball that year (105 wins), and it ended up getting swept by a Wild Card team. Such is life.
In the NL the Reds and the Nats finished tied (record wise) for the best record in the NL so imagine the drama coming down the stretch to see which team was headed to the WS and which had a long off season.
More people would tune into the 168 (under my system) regular season games because they would be so much more important.
Sorry, not buying it. If you take 14 teams in the NL out of contention near the end of the regular season, you will not have more people tuning in. Sure, Cincinnati and Washington DC would be enamored. But those games STL and Atlanta were playing down the stretch that meant something this year become irrelevant under your system. No relevant games on the west coast. Sorry, that is not a recipe for more interest. You can't eliminate 3 time zones from meaningful baseball and think that will improve interest.
I looked it up and you are correct....so history is on the Giants side....if this is a every 27 years cycle sort of thing.
The Giants actually have some eerie similarities to the 1985 Royals. Neither those Royals nor this year's Giants could be called offensive juggernauts, and tended to rely on one star (George Brett for the Royals and Buster Posey for the Giants), and a cast of clutch performers up and down the lineup. The Royals had guys like Buddy Biancalana, Frank White, Willie Wilson, Hal MacRae, and Steve Balboni. Similarly, the Giants also rely on clutch performers like Pagan, Scutaro, and others. Both rosters had great pitching - Royals went four deep, as do the Giants. Good bullpens, too.
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